I'm curious, what is Aurora's airspace? What regulations were violated by the drone's remote pilot? (Obviously see-and-avoid was violated, and probably he did not have continuous line of sight to his drone, but what regulations were violated just by flying in this airspace?)
Meanwhile, I have a DJI Mavic Pro, which is on the small end of medium-sized hobby drones, and it can be difficult to spot in the air even when you're standing still expecting to see it. It would be much more difficult to see when you are at the controls of a moving airplane, especially if it is in the ground clutter up until shortly before you run into it.
Hobby drones are a serious problem because of two features. They are hard to spot and easy for an irresponsible person to fly. Remote-control airplanes, at the hands of the unwashed masses, generally crash into the ground long before they get in the way of a real airplane. And even at the hands of a good but irresponsible remote pilot, they don't last long if they are out of the remote pilot's sight. Drones are too easy to fly out of the remote pilot's line of sight, and the remote pilot being able to see things with the drone that he can't with his own eyes is probably the most common motivation for flying them in the first place.
I don't have the answer. More regulations are not going to solve the problem. Looking outside the cockpit as the OP's quoted e-mail suggests is a 1% solution. The other 99% of the time, you can be looking vigilantly and not see the drone even after you hear it impact your wing. Flying at higher altitudes reduces your risk, because most responsible drone manufacturers put altitude limits into the drone software (user-adjustable--I think my Mavic Pro can go up to 400 meters AGL), and even if an irresponsible remote pilot defeats those limits, it takes a long time for a little drone to climb up very far. But that only helps so much.
What strategies have the brain trust here at POA found to actually avoid colliding with small consumer-grade drones operated by irresponsible remote pilots?